February 23, 2017

Windfall of exoplanets in our cosmic vicinity

Seven Earth-sized planets have been observed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope around a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of these planets are firmly in the habitable zone. Credits: NASA

The windfall of exoplanets that NASA has hit in the constellation of Aquarius is so rich with literary possibilities in terms of science fiction writing. The fact that a system with seven Earth-size exoplanets exists in our cosmic vicinity is yet another example that the cosmos is an unrivaled sci-fi writer. The idea that the cosmos has created sci-fi writers on our planet who can exercise their fantasy is in itself a remarkable thing.

While watching live the NASA announcement of the TRAPPIST-1 system yesterday all kinds of thoughts swirled around in my mind. The first was what if all the seven planets harbor life in either fully evolved states or various stages of evolution? How breathtaking would that be to have a dwarf slightly larger than our own Jupiter to have seven life-rich planets orbit around it!

That thought was immediately followed by what if at least one of the seven civilizations is as advanced as our to be able to spot Earth from where they are? What if they were so advanced that they could track actual people and events on Earth? Given the distance of 39 light years between our systems, TRAPPIST scientists would currently be finding that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were forming Apple or that in India to check population growth the minimum age for marriage was being raised to 21 for men and 18 for women or that Israeli commandos were freeing 103 passengers held hostage at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport or that Chairman Mao had died or that the Khmer Rouge had topped Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia to pretend to create a “classless” society. I am just picking random events. If the TRAPPIST system were so advanced as to detect all that, they would be seeing all this unfold right now given the time lag.

As the search for habitable planets go, the TRAPPIST find is easily the most dramatic so far and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Scientists feel exhilarated if they find one possibly habitable exoplanet like they did last year near in Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri star, the star closest to ours at barely four light years away. While I am sure work is going on to study that candidate, the discovery of the TRAPPIST system upends all previous ones because of its sheer scale. The TRAPPIST dwarf is so cool, according to NASA, (not cool as in with swag but as in terms of its temperature), that most , if not all of the seven planets could possibly harbor surface water. That all seven are rocky is said to be a distinct possibility because of their densities.

The discovery of all seven by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope came after three of them were discovered in May last year using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. I must quote NASA here for some insight into the Spitzer Space Telescope. “Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPPIST-1 nearly continuously for 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing – transits – of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. Engineers optimized Spitzer’s ability to observe transiting planets during Spitzer’s “warm mission,” which began after the spacecraft’s coolant ran out as planned after the first five years of operations,” it says.

NASA also says three of the seven planets are “firmly” in the habitable zone, which means that the ultimate sci-fi fantasy of multiple planets in a single solar system possibly harboring life is at least a theoretical possibility here, if not all seven. All seven may be tidally-locked, which means that only one of their hemispheres is exposed to their sun. Temperature variations between the hemispheres permanently exposed to their sun and permanently looking away could be extreme. Normally tidally-locked planets, even in the habitable zone, are considered inhospitable to life. However, if a dwarf could have seven planets, it is equally possible that some of them may actually have some form of life.

Scientists say of the three in the habitable zone the planet fifth from its star could be the likeliest candidate for life. Right now called just F it takes only 9.21 days to orbit the dwarf. Since it is tidally locked, its day and year would be of the same duration.

A striking feature of the TRAPPIST system is that since the planets are so close to one another, the view of the night sky on the surface of any of the seven would be extraordinary. "The (TRAPPIST-1) planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky,” NASA says.

An artist’s conception of what the surface of one of the seven planets may look like and the view of the sky from it. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Windfall of exoplanets in our cosmic vicinity

Seven Earth-sized planets have been observed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope around a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of these planets are firmly in the habitable zone. Credits: NASA

The windfall of exoplanets that NASA has hit in the constellation of Aquarius is so rich with literary possibilities in terms of science fiction writing. The fact that a system with seven Earth-size exoplanets exists in our cosmic vicinity is yet another example that the cosmos is an unrivaled sci-fi writer. The idea that the cosmos has created sci-fi writers on our planet who can exercise their fantasy is in itself a remarkable thing.

While watching live the NASA announcement of the TRAPPIST-1 system yesterday all kinds of thoughts swirled around in my mind. The first was what if all the seven planets harbor life in either fully evolved states or various stages of evolution? How breathtaking would that be to have a dwarf slightly larger than our own Jupiter to have seven life-rich planets orbit around it!

That thought was immediately followed by what if at least one of the seven civilizations is as advanced as our to be able to spot Earth from where they are? What if they were so advanced that they could track actual people and events on Earth? Given the distance of 39 light years between our systems, TRAPPIST scientists would currently be finding that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were forming Apple or that in India to check population growth the minimum age for marriage was being raised to 21 for men and 18 for women or that Israeli commandos were freeing 103 passengers held hostage at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport or that Chairman Mao had died or that the Khmer Rouge had topped Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia to pretend to create a “classless” society. I am just picking random events. If the TRAPPIST system were so advanced as to detect all that, they would be seeing all this unfold right now given the time lag.

As the search for habitable planets go, the TRAPPIST find is easily the most dramatic so far and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Scientists feel exhilarated if they find one possibly habitable exoplanet like they did last year near in Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri star, the star closest to ours at barely four light years away. While I am sure work is going on to study that candidate, the discovery of the TRAPPIST system upends all previous ones because of its sheer scale. The TRAPPIST dwarf is so cool, according to NASA, (not cool as in with swag but as in terms of its temperature), that most , if not all of the seven planets could possibly harbor surface water. That all seven are rocky is said to be a distinct possibility because of their densities.

The discovery of all seven by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope came after three of them were discovered in May last year using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. I must quote NASA here for some insight into the Spitzer Space Telescope. “Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPPIST-1 nearly continuously for 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing – transits – of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. Engineers optimized Spitzer’s ability to observe transiting planets during Spitzer’s “warm mission,” which began after the spacecraft’s coolant ran out as planned after the first five years of operations,” it says.

NASA also says three of the seven planets are “firmly” in the habitable zone, which means that the ultimate sci-fi fantasy of multiple planets in a single solar system possibly harboring life is at least a theoretical possibility here, if not all seven. All seven may be tidally-locked, which means that only one of their hemispheres is exposed to their sun. Temperature variations between the hemispheres permanently exposed to their sun and permanently looking away could be extreme. Normally tidally-locked planets, even in the habitable zone, are considered inhospitable to life. However, if a dwarf could have seven planets, it is equally possible that some of them may actually have some form of life.

Scientists say of the three in the habitable zone the planet fifth from its star could be the likeliest candidate for life. Right now called just F it takes only 9.21 days to orbit the dwarf. Since it is tidally locked, its day and year would be of the same duration.

A striking feature of the TRAPPIST system is that since the planets are so close to one another, the view of the night sky on the surface of any of the seven would be extraordinary. "The (TRAPPIST-1) planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky,” NASA says.

An artist’s conception of what the surface of one of the seven planets may look like and the view of the sky from it. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)